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SYDNEY - The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) is considering whether to strip Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali of his title as official leader of Australia's Muslims.
Ikebal Patel, elected yesterday as president of the AFIC, the nation's peak Islamic body, said he would seek direction from the Australian National Imams Council, which will meet in April.
Sheik Alhilali came under fire late last year when he compared immodestly dressed women to uncovered meat and suggested they invited sexual assault.
The AFIC created the position of mufti of Australia in 1989, but Mr Patel said the future of Sheik Alhilali rested with the council, which was established last November.
The council consists of 77 senior imams from around Australia, including Sheik Alhilali.
"It's not really a decision for the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils per se, but it is something that is going to be looked at by the National Board of Imams within months," he told ABC radio.
"I would be hoping for direction from the Board of Imams who are really the authority and scholars in Islam who can make a decision, and we will go from there.
"There is a need now to have a Board of Imams, which didn't exist at the time when the position of mufti was created, to deliberate on the matter, to give it robust debate and come up with some recommendations which the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils certainly will take into consideration."
Mr Patel said the sheik was "totally out of line" when he compared women to uncovered meat.
"Those comments in no way help the situation... for Australian Muslims," he said.
"Any flippant comment by anybody who has got a following or a position, of mufti for instance, has to be taken with a lot of responsibility.
"I think Sheik Taj Aldin has said things that I would not say, and I think he himself realises that the context he has said it in is probably not the right thing."
- AAP
